Auschwitz Museum Under Fire for Refusing to Say Polish Woman Was ‘Murdered’ by Nazis

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland took to Twitter on Monday to explain its use of terminology after it was criticized by a Jewish leader in Kentucky for saying that a Polish Jewish woman “did not survive” the Auschwitz concentration camp rather than writing that she was “murdered” in the death camp.

“It is important to recognize that our understanding of the specific circumstances of death for many people deported to Auschwitz is limited. In cases where we lack precise information regarding the fate of an individual, we employ the term ‘did not survive,’” the museum wrote in its defense.

The museum and memorial site, which is located on the land formerly used for the Auschwitz concentration camp, uploaded on July 20 a Twitter post about Fanny Berger, who was born in Brody, Poland, that same day in 1922 and later emigrated to France. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum tweeted that Berger was deported to Auschwitz in February 1943 and “did not survive.”

Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, chairman of the Kentucky Jewish Council and director of Chabad of the Bluegrass in eastern Kentucky, replied to the post by lambasting the state museum for not writing that Berger was “murdered” by Nazis after being deported to Auschwitz.

“Was she hit by a car?” the rabbi sarcastically asked. “Did a piano fall on her head? Or was she murdered by the Nazi Regime?” His post was shared over 100 times and liked by more than 1,200 Twitter users.

In its explanation, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum began by saying that it understands “the immense emotional sensitivity surrounding the victims of the Auschwitz,” and that “it is crucial to approach the topic with the utmost respect and consideration.”

Litvin, however, was not satisfied with the museum’s response.

“The sanitized language of the Auschwitz Memorial, even in this response, is troubling because the Auschwitz Camp & Museum are controlled by the Polish government, who are willful & malicious Holocaust Revisionists,” he wrote. “This account’s mission is a good one, but verbiage is important.”

(c) The Algemeiner Journal